About the PM Contract Change Orders Form

Use this form to create and maintain contract change orders (CCOs).

A contract change order is an official amendment document for a change in scope to a customer/owner contract and it is a collection of approved change orders.

CCOs are very similar to change order requests (CORs), but a CCOs is a grouping of approved change orders rather than a grouping of pending/potential change orders. Click here for information on change order requests (CORs).

Contract change orders are processed using the following basic steps:

Tasks

Approve a CCO

Click the Approve button at the bottom of the form to approve a contract change order. Approving a contract change order means that the ACOs on the CCO can now be interfaced using the PM Interface form.

Note:

Approving a CCO also changes the status of the ACOs on the CCO. Click here for information on ACO statuses.

Unapprove a CCO

Click the Unapprove button at the bottom of the form to unapprove a contract change order. Unapproving a CCO means that the ACOs should not be interfaced with the accounting modules.

Note:

Unapproving a CCO also changes the status of the ACOs on the CCO. Click here for information on ACO statuses.

Add multiple ACOs to a CCO

Select Tasks > Add ACOs to select multiple ACOs and then add them to a contract change order. The PCOs added to the CCO will automatically be related using the Related Items feature.

Note:

Adding the ACO to the CCO changes the status of the ACO from "Approved" to "Pending." You can view the status of an ACO using Info tab in the upper portion of PM Approved Change Orders . When an ACO has a pending status, it cannot be interfaced with the accounting modules using PM Interface. When the CCO is approved using the Approve button at the bottom of the form, the status of the ACO will change back to "Approved" and you will be able to interface the ACOs.

The ACOs are selected using the PM Add Records form, which is a generic form used for selecting multiple records and its function varies depending on how it is launched.

Create a list of contacts that should receive CCO documents and communication- Distribution Tab

The Distribution tab is used to create a list of contacts that should receive the contract change order document generated using the Create and Send feature.

Overview

When a new communication is created using the Create and Send feature (), the contacts on this tab are automatically added to the communication. For example if a project contact should be included in any communication about an RFI record (emails, RFI documents, change order reports, etc.), you should add that project contact to the Distribution tab of the RFI so that they are automatically added to any communication.

Contacts are automatically added to this tab in two ways

  • When a project contact is included in a Create and Send communication - When a project contact is included in a Create and Send communication, the system automatically adds that contact to the Distribution tab. For example if you launch the Create and Send feature using an RFQ record, the project contacts added to the email using the To, Cc, and Bcc fields will also be added to the Distribution tab of the PM Request For Quote form. When a new email is created for that RFQ using the Create and Send feature, the project contacts set up on the Distribution tab will automatically populate in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields on the email.

  • When a project contact is set up as a distribution default - The Assign Distribution Defaults feature automatically adds contacts to the Distribution tab if they are setup as a default contact for the document type associated with the form. For example, if a project contact is set up to receive all documents and correspondence dealing with RFQs, that contact will by default be included on the Distribution tab of any RFQ document. More

    Manually add contacts to the Distribution tab

    You can also manually add contacts to the Distribution tab.

  1. Add contacts to the Distribution tab to create a list of contacts that should receive documents generated using the Create and Send feature.
    There are two ways to add contacts to the tab:
    • Drag and Drop - By default the Project Firm Contacts form displays when you open the Distribution tab. The Project Firm Contacts form displays a list of contacts associated with the project using the Firms tab in PM Projects. Drag and drop a contact from the Project Firm Contacts form to the Distribution tab to add the contact.
      Note: The Project Firm Contacts list can also be accessed by selecting View > Project Firms List.
    • Manually enter the information - Enter contact information into the grid to manually to add a contact to the Distribution tab. If the contact is not already associated with the project, a message will display when you save the record. Select Yes to add the contact to the distribution list and to PM Project Firms. Select No to add the contact to the distribution list only.

      The Project Firm Contacts form doesn't display

    The Project Firm Contacts form displays when the Distribution tab is opened and the Always Show Form box on the Project Firm Contacts form is checked. The selection in the Always Show Form box only affects the currently selected form (for example PM Request For Information, PM Issues, etc.) and it only applies to your user account.

    To view the Project Firm Contacts form when the Always Show Formbox is not checked, open the Distribution tab and select View > Project Firms List from the toolbar at the top of the form.

  2. Verify that the preferred method of correspondence is correct.
  3. Use the Send Type field to select how the contacts should be included in the communication. The Create and Send feature will generate a unique document for each contact with a send type of To.
  4. Check the Send box for each contact in the grid that should receive the communication. If this box is not checked, the contact will be excluded when generating documents using the Create and Send feature.
Manually add ACOs to the CCO - ACOs Tab

Use the ACOs tab to manually add ACOs to the contract change order. All of the items on the selected ACOs will be added to the CCO. You can also add ACOs to the CCO by selecting Tasks > Add ACOs. This will open PM Add Records .

When an ACO is added to a contract change order, it cannot be interfaced with the accounting modules using PM Interface until the contract change order has been approved.

Note: Adding an ACO to a CCO also changes the status of the ACO. Click here for information on ACO statuses.

The ACOs on the CCO will display in a table on the standard Contract Change Order document generated using the Create and Send feature.

The approved change orders added to a CCO will also be related to the CCO using the Related Items feature. Click here for general information about the Related Items feature.

Create a CCO document - Create and Send

The Create and Send feature allows you to generate documents and send them to project contacts. For example, you can use this feature to create RFIs, submittals, and change order documents and then email those documents to the contacts on a project.

Click here for more information on the Create and Send feature.

Three options display when you click on the Create and Send () icon:

  • Send Message - Select this option to send an email to a list of project contacts. Using this option you can also generate a document, include an attachment, and/or generate a report. More

  • Send Document - Select this option to generate a project document or report, and email it to a list of project contacts. Using this option you can also include an attachment. More

  • Send with Transmittal - Select this option to generate a project document and transmittal, and email those documents to a list of project contacts. Using this option you can also include an attachment and/or generate a report. More

    Generate a report

    Some of the PM module forms do not have a related document template, for example the PM Approved Change Orders , PM Purchase Orders, and PM Punch List forms. Generally you will use the Create and Send feature on these forms to generate reports and then email those to a list of project contacts. For example you can use the Create and Send feature to generate a daily log report and then send it to a list of project contacts.

    Why doesn't the Create and Send () icon display on the form?

    Note:

    The Create and Send () icon will not display on the form if it has been disabled using PM Create & Send Settings form (Info tab> Deactivate Document Create and Send Feature box).

    More Information

Totals - Info Tab

There are four total fields on the Info tab that provide a snapshot of the CCO when it is created. These fields will populate with calculated values as ACOs are added to the CCO, but these totals do not automatically update when you change the information on the ACOs, or create .

For example if you add an item to an ACO that has already been included on the CCO, the CCO totals will not automatically increase to reflect the new ACO item.

If you would like to update the totals so that they reflect the changes made to the contract after the CCO has been created, select Tasks > Refresh Totals.

Note: When you add new ACOs to a CCO, only the amounts on the new ACOs will be added to the totals, but changes to ACOs that have already been added to the CCO will not update.

Original Contract Amount

This field displays the original contract amount, including all contract items.

Other Authorized Contract Changes

This field includes all ACOs for the selected contract, less any ACOs that have been added to the contract change order. This total is calculated when the CCO is originally created, but it can be updated using Tasks > Refresh Totals.

For example, assume there are 2 ACOs on a contract and only one of them is included on the CCO. The ACO that is not included on the CCO will display in the Other Authorized Contract Changes field regardless of when it was created. If a third ACO is created, it will not be included in any total unless you refresh the totals using Tasks > Refresh Totals. If you do refresh the totals, the third ACO will be included in the Other Authorized Contract Changes field because it is not included in the CCO.

Current Contract Change Order

This field displays the total contract change amount based on the approved change orders added to CCO using the ACOs tab. This amount will include all line items on each ACO.

Current Contract Amount

This field displays the original contract amount plus previously authorized change orders and the approved change orders on the ACOs tab.

CCO Status field

A system status field displays next to the Contract field at the top of the form. This field displays the status of the ACOs on the CCO.

  • No ACOS - No ACOs have been added to the contract change order.
  • Not Approved - All of the ACOs on the CCO have not been approved
  • Partially Approved - Some of the ACOS on the CCO have been approved
  • Approved - All of the ACOs on the CCO have been approved
Note: ACOs are approved at the item level using the Approved box on the Info tab in the lower portion of PM Approved Change Orders .

Commitment COs tab

This tab displays subcontracts and purchase orders associated with the ACOs on the contract change order. This tab is for display only.

Related Items ()

The Related Items feature allows you to link associated items - for example link a project issue with the RFIs, meetings, PCOs, and other documents and records that relate to the issue.

Items are linked in several ways:

  • Automatically - The system automatically relates two records when one record is used to generate another. For example if you select Create > RFI on PM Issues, the system will automatically relate the created RFI and the project issue used to create it. The Create drop down in the PM Work Center also automatically links related records.
  • Manually in a form - You can manually create and remove item relations using the PM Related Items form. This form is launched from most forms in the PM module by clicking the drop down next to the Related Items icon and selecting Add Record Items. PM Relate Items has search functions that allow you to quickly locate records and then manually add or remove the relations.
  • Manually in the PM Work Center - You can also manually relate items using the drag and drop feature on the Related Items panel on the PM Work Center. For example if you receive an MS Outlook email about an RFI, you can open that RFI in the PM Work Center and then drag and drop the email from MS Outlook to the Related Items panel. This will add the email as an attachment and as a related item on the RFI.

    Once the items are linked, use the Related Items panel on the PM Work Center and most PM module forms to view and open the related items.

  • Click here for general information about the Related Items feature.
  • Click here for information on manually adding or removing related items.

Distribution Audit ()

Use the Distribution Audit () feature to view:

  • All of the documents generated using the Create and Send feature - for example change orders, RFIs, drawing logs, project issues, etc.
  • Any communications sent using the Create and Send feature- for example if you resend a document to a project contact.

    Click here for more information.

Distribution Icon ()

Use the Distribution icon to either set up a distribution default on a project or create a distribution group.

  • Distribution Default - Use distribution defaults to define what documents a contact should by default receive when using the Create and Send feature. For example, if a contact at an architecture firm should receive a copy of all drawing logs of document type 'ARCH', use this feature to set up that contact as a default for 'ARCH' documents. When drawing logs of that type are created in PM Drawing Logs, the contact will automatically be added to the Distribution tab. When communications and documents are created using the Create and Send feature, the contact will by default be included. More
    Note: Assigning a new distribution default will not change the distribution of the current document. The new distribution default will only be applied when you create a new document (RFI, change order, etc.).
  • Distribution Group - A distribution group is a collection of contacts that you regularly group together and send correspondence to - for example a group of contacts that receive submittals. These groups can then be added to communications created using the Create and Send feature. More

Create a related item ()

Use the Create Related option () to create a new record using the information on the currently selected record. The new record will be associated with the current record using the Related Item feature, and to reduce data entry some of the fields on the new record will default based on the currently selected record.

For example if you are viewing a meeting in the PM Meeting Minutes form and want to create a new pending change order, click on the Create Related option () and select Pending Change Orders from the menu that displays. This will open the PM Pending Change Orders form, and populate the Project field so that you can create a new pending change order.

This feature is also available on the PM Work Center.

Overview of Change Orders